mq golden image queue managers€¦ · capitalware's mq technical conference v2.0.1.4 caveats...

Capitalware's MQ Technical Conference v2.0.1.4

MQ “Golden Image” Queue Managers

Glen Brumbaugh

TxMQ


Table of Contents

Why a Golden Image?

Installing WMQ Software

Creating Queue Managers

Automating Startup

Customizing Queue Managers

Tools

Application Configuration

Summary


Why a Golden Image?



Concept of the Golden Image

“Golden Image” defined – Term used with slightly different meanings for different software.

– Term refers to a standardized, repeatable, cloneable image of software.

o Implication is that the image embeds “Best Practices”

– Concept is the basis for emerging technologies such as the IBM Pure systems.

Benefits of a Golden Image – Standardization

o All Queue Managers look and behave as expected

o All Queue Managers embed “Best Practices”

– Automation

o Standardized image enables automation

o Standardization requires automation

o Automation increases productivity

o Standardization and automation increase build quality

– Continuous Improvement

o Scripts can be improved as errors are found or opportunities identified

o Issues discovered can be institutionalized (“Find once, Fix many times”)

o An essential part of the ISO 9001 process


Golden Image Constraints

Infrastructure Constraints – Lack of a standardized metadata solution to store and deploy configuration information

– Vendors are driving towards this

Server Constraints – Distributed Operating Systems have repositories.

o It isn’t possible to simply install directories and files

• UNIX has Package Management

• Windows has its Registry

– It isn’t possible to install the software on every server

o Disk Space

o License issues

– The software can be pre-installed in images when new servers are built

o IBM Pure systems do this

o There is a limit to have many base images can be maintained

Skill Constraints – Scripting capability; Both to create and to maintain the installation scripts

– Conceptualization; See the larger picture and long-term benefits


Caveats

The remainder of this presentation presents a possible Golden Image

The Image presented has been used successfully in multiple organizations

However, there are multiple ways to do things in WMQ – Each approach has benefits and drawbacks

– You must make your own choices and create your own organizations Golden Image

– What is being presented is a base version for your consideration

Content versus decisions – The most important part of your Golden Image is the decisions you make, and embed, in the Image

– Consider all of the things covered in this Image, but make your own decisions for your own Image

– The decisions illustrated in this presentation are my choices

Style versus Substance – The style of administration is the least important part of the Golden Image

– The substance of the choices and the consistency of the infrastructure are the important parts


What are you doing?

Do you have a Standard Image? – Why not?

o WMQ has been around over 20 years.

o We know how to do this.

– Reasons

o Time constraints.

o Too much up front work.

o Too much personalization.

• Personal preferences in admin style.

• Changing personnel over time.

• Changing preferences over time.

o Mindset

• Hands on Keyboard

o Management

• Quality difficult to measure, so often neglected

– But

o Our best customers are doing this.

o Our best customers have doing this for a long time.


Installing WMQ Software



WMQ Software Installation

The process of installing WMQ software may be scripted and standardized

– In some cases, this part of the Golden Image has the lowest ROI (Return on Investment)

o Software installations are often one of the least frequent administration steps performed

o However, this is not true for all organizations

o It the installations are more frequent, the ROI increases

In all cases, at least some parts of the installation should be standardized – The creation of the “mqm” User and Group IDs in UNIX

o Ensuring that these are installed and have consistent UID and GID numbers

– Modifying underlying system (e.g. UNIX) settings

– Running the mqconfig program

– Creating standard directories for administrative use

o Scripts

o Tools

– Post Installation steps

o Setting up the WMQ environment (setmqinst, setmqenv)

o Automating WMQ startup with the server (e.g. /etc/init…)

– Institutionalizing Fixes

o IBM Technotes (e.g. TechNote 1442991)


Software Installation – What are you doing?

Group Feedback

– Learn from your peers

– Think about the total number of years of MQ knowledge in

this room!.


Creating Queue Managers



Queue Manager Creation

crtmqm qmgr

– This simple command will get the job done, but is it what you want?

– At a minimum, this command determines (forever)

o The name of your Queue Manager

o The type of logging your Queue Manager will use

o The size of the log files (Log File Page Size)

Things to consider standardizing – Logging Type (Circular vs Linear)

o Possibly based upon environment

– Number and size of Logs

– TCP Port

– Dead Letter Queue assignment & name

– Default Queue Manager

Standardization – Script that executes the “crtmqm” command

o Put as little as possible in this script, only doing the essentials (e.g. Logging)

– MQSC Commands are simpler and more flexible than scripts


Qmgr Creation – What are you doing?

Group Feedback



this room!.


Automating Startup



Queue Manager Startup

Queue Manager Startup

– Queue Managers should be started when the Operating System boots

o This was covered in the Software Installation portion of the Image

What else should happen when a Queue Manager starts? – Channel Initiator: alter qmgr schinit (qmgr)

– Command Server: alter qmgr scmdserv (qmgr)

– Channel Listener: define service (…) … control (qmgr)

– Trigger Monitor: define service (…) … control (qmgr)

Dead Letter Queue Handler: define service (…) … control (qmgr)

Standardize the way all Queue Managers are started – There should be little need for specialized startup and shutdown commands

o Exploit MQ services for all routine tasks

– The UNIX startup command can be a simple “strmqm” command or loop

Simplify and Standardize – Don’t forget to document!


Qmgr Startup – What are you doing?

Group Feedback



this room!.


Customizing Queue Managers



Queue Manager Customization Scripts

Use MQSC Scripts – Scripts may have parameters substituted through a simple mechanism like sed

Two basic scripts – Script that is common to all Queue Managers and requires no customization

– Script that contains Queue Manager specific parameters (e.g. CONNAME)

Queue Manager settings that change across builds and require parameterization – Queue Manager Name

– Queue Manager Port

– Queue Manager Installation Path

– Queue Manager Connection Name

Communication settings that change across builds and require parameterization – Cluster name

– Full Repository Queue Manager Name

– Full Repository Queue Manager Connection Name

– Full Repository Queue Manager Port


Queue Manager Customization Settings #1

Queue Manager Settings – Dead Letter Queue

– Channel Authorizations (Enabled) (Channel Authorization Security)

– ChAD (Disabled) (Channel Auto Definition)

– DefClXQ (Default Transmission Queue)

Maxmimum Message Sizes – Queue Manager

– Channels

– Queues

Monitoring – MonQ

– MonChl

– MonACls (Monitor Auto-defined Cluster Sender Channels)

Accounting & Statistics

Events



Message Monitoring – ActivRec

– RouteRec

System Default Queues – Maximum Message Size

– Maximum Depth

– Monitoring

– Default Persistence

– Default Bind

System Default Channels – Maximum Message Size

– Monitoring

Security – Channel Authorizations

– MCAUSER settings on all “SYSTEM” receiving channels



MQ Administration – Server Connection Channels (WMQ.ADMIN.***)

o Administrative use

• MQExplorer, etc. (all client based Administrative tools)

– Queues

o Administrative use (WMQ.ADMIN. ***)

• “Ping” queues

• “Trace Route” queues

– Services

o Move messages

o Clear queues

o Any routine functions

o Service (or any MQSC command) can be executed from your desktop to any Queue Manager

o Use the MO72 SupportPac (Thank you Paul Clarke)

Channel Definitions – The MQSC template doesn’t change

– Remote Queue Manager name and connection Information change

– Scripts can also be used to define Cluster and Point-to-Point channels


Qmgr Customizaton – What are you doing?

Group Feedback



this room!.


Tools



Administrative Tools

Standard Tools can be deployed to each Queue Manager – SupportPacs

– Scripts

SupportPacs – MA01 (“q”)

o Move messages from/to queues and/or files

o May be invoked as a Service for routine activities

o Moving messages from a queue to the file “/dev/null” will clear a queue with open handles!

– MO06 (Log Summary)

o Analyze error logs for more easily identify issues

– MH03 (Queue Statistics - xmqqstat)

o Monitor queues and record activity statistics


Adminstrative Tools – What are you doing?

Group Feedback



this room!.



Applications require the same objects on each Queue Manager

– Queues

– Server Connection channels

– Processes and Trigger Monitors

– Hopefully the object names do not change across Queue Managers

o If they do, this can be handled in the same way that Queue Manager changes are handled

Application configuration can be scripted – MQSC scripts for each type of server

o Front-end Web Server

o Message Broker

o Back-end Application Server


App Configuration – What are you doing?

Group Feedback



this room!.


Summary



“Golden Image” Queue Manager Summary

Fully realized Queue Managers require many configuration actions – The number of different configuraton commands run from the Scores to the Hundreds!

– This does not count Application configuration!

– Queue Managers frequently support multiple Applications,

If manual configuration is performed – Standardization is virtually impossible

– Build quality is unacceptably low

– Improvement is difficult

Defining a standard configuration is the first step – This should be done even/especially if the builds are done manually!

Automation (Scripting) can provide significant results – Productivity

– Build quality

Each of these steps supports Continuous Improvement – If you don’t automate the easy stuff, you’ll never have time for the real engineering!


Questions & Answers


Presenter

Glen Brumbaugh – [email protected]

Computer Science Background – Lecturer in Computer Science, University of California, Berkeley

– Adjunct Professor in Information Systems, Golden Gate University, San Francisco

WebSphere MQ Background (20 years plus) – IBM Business Enterprise Solutions Team (BEST)

o Initial support for MQSeries v1.0

o Trained and mentored by Hursley MQSeries staff

– IBM U.S. Messaging Solutions Lead, GTS

– Platforms Supported

o MVS aka z/OS

o UNIX (AIX, Linux, Sun OS, Sun Solaris, HP-UX)

o Windows

o iSeries (i5OS)

– Programming Languages

o C, COBOL, Java (JNI, WMQ for Java, WMQ for JMS)

mailto:[email protected]

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